Equilibrium
by Incanto
Summary: A continuation of the game. After the passing of Sin, the fallen are kept from their rest by the machinations of a reclusive sect of Al Bhed. (Postponed indefinetley)
1. Accident and artifice

WARNING—This is the first chapter of a direct sequel to Final Fantasy X. Aside from introducing several new characters, it has no end of spoilers, both for the main story line and some of the optional side-quests. Specifically, you should know how Seymour acquired Anima.

Also, text in is in the Al Bhed language, which I assume most of the characters understand.

1. Accident and artifice

I. Seymour

_You should thank me. Your death means your father's life…_

So those are to be my last words…pathetic. I had so much more in me. That's the trouble, of course…they never warn you…

   My father will be here, of course. Odd, that actually frightens me…it isn't as though he can kill me. Is it? He won't be angry, I'm certain of that much. The dead are never angry with their murders, he told me so himself…somehow, the farplane grants them perspective. Besides, if second-death is possible, I slew him once. I am prepared to do so again.

   I remember my first death. The farplane touched me, for only an instant, before I transcended death…it was…warm water, soothing, supporting. For an instant I was tempted to give in, but that only strengthened my resolve. I was to bring this bliss to thousands.

   It amazes me that I can think so lucidly. The farplane blurred my senses. No, it vindicated them. There was no longer and need to think or speak or see. Now, though, all my senses are intact….I'm lying on the ocean floor, I can almost feel the sand against my back. No, wait. I _can_ feel it. And all at once I can feel everything, the weight of my robe, soaked through…weeds against my cheek…where is this?

   I discover I can move. The weight of my corporeal form itself is unbearable. How did I manage with this unwieldy abomination for so many years?

   I open my ears, my ears, my nose. A translucent membrane covers my nostrils, filtering oxygen from the water. One useful result of my Guado blood. The light here is dim. I can make out huge looming shapes, boulders, maybe. I try to kick off against the sand. My limbs eventually obey me, and I sail upwards, slicing through the water.

   At last I surface. The sun is blinding, and the strain of controlling this form has become too much. Surrendering, I go limp, letting the water lift me until I am entirely horizontal. I float, then, after minutes or hours, sleep takes me.

II. Tidus

   All I know is that I love her. What else do I need? As I fall, I try to hold that memory. I don't think of where I'm going, I don't hear the shouts from behind me. I only see her face, tears still wet on her cheeks, her eyes glowing. Before that moment, I never noticed they were different colors. I can't believe that. I only hear her breathing, as she stops crying, at last, and takes one deep breath. I only feel her warmth in my arms, and the softness of her bare shoulder.

   …That must sound stupid. There's no describing it. I've never been much good with words, anyway. So I only remember.

   I feel something else. Suddenly she's gone, and my arms close on nothing. For just a second the memory was real, she was actually there. I open my eyes. I'm not falling anymore. But the water of the spring is still all around me, and I can almost see her in front of me. I reach out to pull her in. Then I realize it can't be her. My arms close on metal, and it hugs me right back, with a much stronger grip than Yuna ever had.

III.

12:14, on the seventh day of the first cycle of the twenty-ninth Calm

-Five specimens C-1—C-5 materialized in soul syphon

C-1, Guado/Human male

C-2, C-4, C-5, Human male

C-3, Ronso female

-C-3, C-5 of no interest, liquidated 

-C-1 resembles Maester Seymour (deceased), tests pending

-C-2, C-4 resemble former guardians (whereabouts unknown) of Maester (Summoner) Yuna, tests pending

IV. Yuna

   This is to be the last destination of our new pilgrimage. Some have already left: Wakka and Lulu to Luca, Cid to the recovering Home. Afterward, I will be able to devote all my energy to the restoration of Bevelle. The city is ruins, but you would never know from observing the populace. They are still in a state of celebration. Perhaps I was too quick to say that Sin was forever gone. Not all of them believed it, anyway, but they still rejoice. 

   "Yunie…" Rikku walks around me, peering into my face. "Are we there yet?"

   "Almost." I can't help but smile.

   "Where're we going, anyway? Looks like a big rock to me. No self-respecting Al Bhed would ever live there. Nobody would." She peers at the horizon. I must admit she's right. The island, Pragmatica, is no more than a few square miles across. The single building, aside from the dock, is an Al Bhed institution for research and scientific betterment known as Strangeways. No Maester has ever set foot there. I will be the first. After Sin's dissolution, it was necessary that I take the title, as there were no others left. The church would have collapsed had I not.

   There is another reason, as well, aside from the unification of the people of Spira. A personal matter. No need for Rikku to know. No need for false hope. 

   "A supervising technician, Blicero, contacted me," I say, which was true. Rikku peers at the rock another minute, then leans back, arms crossed behind her. She is silent for longer than I can ever remember her being before. "Have you been here?" I ask.

   "You could say." She chews at a strand of hair that falls across her mouth. "Well…nah. Nothing, 's nothing."

   "Go on," I say, in what I hope is a reassuring tone.

   "You said his name was…Blicero?" She turns away, but looks towards me out of the corner of her eye.

   "That's right."

   "Well…there aren't that many Al Bhed. Not that many at all. Fewer than there're people in Bevelle, Cid told me. So what I mean is, I knew him. That's all."

   "I see." I look out to sea. The island is much closer now, and I can make out the silver dome at its summit. Strangeways.

   "Stop doing that!" Rikku shouts, suddenly. 

   "I wasn't…"

   "Stop being all smug and quiet! All right, so I lied, Yevon strike me dead, blah, blah. I knew him pretty well. I mean, really well. Like…well-well." She sighs, as if I've finally won, although I haven't done anything.

   "How well?" I ask, dutifully playing my part as the antagonist. 

   "I thought it was love. We assigned to the same salvage vessel. It was some long job, three or four ships. I think…they might have been salvaging some of the equipment that they use now, at Strangeways. But anyway, he was working in the galley and I had to clean. It wasn't a big ship, so we met a lot, and we talked." There's no pain in her voice. None of her usual cheer, either. It's flat. "After three months, the ship came back to Home. We still met. One day, well…Bli was always so rigid, like, even when he was alone. He didn't like to touch things. And the way he moved, spoke…it was kind of like a machina. I liked him, he was smart and polite and all, but parts of him were so ugly. When I listened to music or watched the sun set, it was like those things were the opposite of Bli. So I thought I'd try to make him…less ugly. I bought this music box, thirty gil, it was a lot of money for me. The next time we met up I gave it to him, and…" She pauses.

   "He didn't like it?" I guess.

   "No, he thought…well, he said it was 'fascinating'. And he meant it, but that wasn't what I wanted…it's complicated. But we listened to it for a while, and he said it was bleak, and I said 'well, it suits you, then'. He smiled. I remember that, 'cause he didn't smile too often, and I liked it. It was kind of a depressing music box, though. Should've listened to it before I bought it."

   "What happened afterward?"

   "Oh…we sat, talked. I was trying to get him to say he loved me, but of course he couldn't…it was like this disability of his. He could only ever talk about the way things looked or smelled or sounded, never the way he felt about them. When he said the music was bleak, that was as abstract as he ever got. So he'd tell me I looked nice, and that was the end of it."

   "No, I meant…in the end," I say, looking down.

   "Eh. It didn't work out. He wouldn't kiss me 'cause he was afraid of germs. One day he just disappeared, I thought maybe he'd been killed. I didn't think it would be such a loss if he was, I was angry with him by then."

   "Well." Strangeways is almost directly beneath us, and I can feel the airship shudder as it slows down. "You'll see him again, soon. Who knows? Maybe he'll still have your music box."

   "Ooh! That's be so romantic!" She grinned, back to her usual self. "I'll bet he does. I'll bet he keeps it on a chain around his neck." 

   As we descend toward the island, I catch sight of something else, something huge and metal in the waters to the south, revolving slowly.

V. Seymour

   I know this room. Jyscal used to send me here to calm myself when I was angry. A small place, near the top of the estate, with a single chair at its center. It was here that I slit his throat. I found the irony delightful.  

   But I cannot possibly be here. This is only another illusion, a trick of my battered mind. The same goes for her, sitting in that chair, her back to me. I have never seen her, but all the same, she is unmistakable. She looks enough like me to be my twin sister. And as I try to approach…

   "This is your story." The words come from her, but also from all around, and from inside myself. "First Seymour sought death for himself, because he saw no reason to live. That has all passed. Then, Seymour sought power, because he hated others. That has all passed. Then, Seymour sought death for others, because he thought their lives were as hopeless as his own. That has all passed. Then, once again, Seymour sought death for himself. In the belly of Sin, where all bad things breed, he lost what little hope he had." She turns towards me. I want to obliterate that face before I can see it, but I am powerless, as in a dream. 

   She smiles, sickly. Her face is mine, but also…

   And now I awake. So it was a dream, after all. So much the better, that it was natural, that I am not losing my mind. Then her voice sounds again: "_What do you seek now_?" My atrophied heart is jolted into motion. It is a moment before I can master myself, and look around. 

VI. Auron

He isn't tall or short, fat or thin. He looks thoroughly average. An Al Bhed, judging from the shape of his jaw and the leather harness across his shoulders.

   "So," he says briskly, "How do you feel?"

   "Alive," I spit. He must think it's something positive. He can't even begin to know.

   "You should be. You hardly had a pulse when we extracted you from the soul syphon."

   "You should have left me. I was due." My entire body aches. 

   "Fascinating," is all he says, "Fascinating. Do you know your name? Speak it for me."

   "Yours first." I'm not restrained in any way, but still I find it impossible to move. I'm lying across a metal slab, and he's standing over me.

   "No need. I am…a scientist, suffice to say, of the Strangeways institute. Now…"

   "I am Auron." I try once more to stand. No good. He may have drugged me. "And I should be in the farplane by now. Explain." I would have liked to utter that last word with my blade pressed to his throat. "What is this soul syphon of yours?"

   He ignores the question, saying to himself, "Ah, Sir Auron. I knew as much…"

   "Answer!" My shout comes out a whisper. 

   "My apologies for any inconvenience," he says, distractedly. "The soul syphon is a device…a lightning rod, drawing Sinspawn from all corner of Spira. They are captured for study, or if they prove too unstable, liquidated by compound security. This, though…this is unprecedented."

   Presently, a door nearby swings open. I can't even turn my head to look. There are footsteps, and a voice shouts: "Pacco Blicero!"

   "What is it?" he answers, as though he expected this.

   "You asked to be told…the new Maester has arrived. She is on the shore with her escort, a Ronso, and one of our own. I do not recognize her."

   "Who, the Maester?"

   "No, the escort, the Al Bhed girl. Perhaps you identify her, they wish to speak with you immediately."

   "Very well." Pacco Blicero turns back to me, frowning. "I will return shortly," he says, "Perhaps with one that you know. And you must remember, you are not my prisoner here. A quarantine period of one week is traditional. After that, you are free to leave."

   He moves out of my line of sight. A door is slammed shut. Then, after a minute, there's another voice, one that's damnably familiar. If I could look to my left, I know I'd see an eruption of blue hair, a heavily veined chest, and a wretched, arrogant smirk.

   "Well," says Seymour, "Yevon's workings are mysterious indeed. It would seem he has seen fit to bring us together once again."

VII. Yuna

   The island of Pragmatica is as desolate as it looked form the air. Nothing grows here naturally. Rikku stands on one side of me, Kimahri on the other. A procession of six unarmed monks serves as an escort. We stand at the edge of a cliff, waiting for an emissary from the institute. Rikku has already told me she hates this place. She can't say why, but she keeps shivering, despite the tropical climate.

   Now Kimahri sniffs the air, and I can guess he words before he even speaks them. "This place smell terrible. Like death…no, like nothing. No smell." I can imagine how disturbing that must be. Kimahri has always relied on his nose. How can he trust anything he can't smell?

   "Well…it is, like, a sterile facility and all," Rikku offers, in feeble defense of her people's work. "It's not dead, just clean. Nothing wrong with that." I think I can make out figures stirring near the base of the Strangeways. I lean forward, and Rikku follows suit. Her eyesight must be sharper than mine, since she reels back immediately. "Well," she says faintly, "He's here." 

   The procession descends toward us, following a winding path eroded into the rock. There are six of them, five men and a woman. She is dressed in the leather jumpsuit of an Al Bhed scavenger, but the others wear stiff white robes I am unfamiliar with.

   "The guys are Pacco," Rikku whispers, "Al Bhed scientists. They mess with older machina, trying to make, well, new ones. And that lady, I think I know her. They call her Niner. Largest lung capacity of any Al Bhed." She has short, black hair, showing beneath her headgear. She is no older than Rikku.

   The leader of the group is now only a few feet from me. His hair, which is so blonde as to be nearly white, is cut severely short. He bows, and performs a clumsy version of the Prayer. 

   "I am Pacco Blicero, good Lady," he says stiffly, "At your service."

   Blicero assured me that the reason for my visit was safe, and alive, but unconscious. It would be at least an hour before he was fit to receive any visitors. He also hinted that some of the others who had been captured by his device might be of interest to me. I flooded him with questions, but it was impossible to get a straight answer from the man. He kept spitting out the same words, Quarantine, Unverified, Delicate. I decided not to press the subject. 

   Now, he has left me in the hands of another of these Pacco, a man he calls Veigel. He announced that he would check on the status of his subjects. Throughout our interview, Rikku kept staring pointedly at him, but he took no notice. When he went off, she crept discreetly after him.

   I think I like Veigel better, he seems more good-natured. "I am a bad scientist," he said once Blicero was out of earshot, "Because I smile. Blicero cannot stand it, so he dislikes me. But I have found it often helps."

   He seems to be leading me on a tour of the facility, talking all the while. "The actual reason Blicero left you with me is simple—he cannot talk to people, you see? He avoids them whenever possible. He thinks I am better…perhaps this is so, but I cannot imagine that anyone would be worse." The Bevellian that he and Blicero speak is broken and heavily accented, unlike Rikku's.

   "And what is it he wanted you to tell me?" I ask.

   "Only this…we are very concerned, here. There are two issues mainly, both relating to balance." He stops, looking around us at the banks of machinery.  

   "Yes?"

   "The first. As you of course know, Sin is no more. Many here believe that it will return, in time, but I do not…for the sake of conjecture, let us say that he is. Now Spira is without destruction. Now this troubles Blicero, in particular…he is the sort of man, who…how do I explain…if he brushes one wall of a corridor with his sleeve, he feels he has to brush the other, so as have all things be equal. He cares very much about these matters. We think that good cannot exist without evil. Nor can creation without destruction. Nor dark without light. Nor what is masculine without what is feminine. So if there is no Sin, then perhaps something still more terrible…will rise in its place."

   I say nothing. After we've passed through several more halls, he goes on. "The other difficulty is this. With our soul syphon, we have perhaps captured souls on the very brink of the farplane. Therefore we have taken from Yevon things that belong to him, we have robbed him."

   "I thought you were a scientist," I said.

   "I am a scientist first and foremost. But I am a bad scientist, as I said, and I cannot deny that Yevon exists, and that he has great power. Perhaps all power. I do not know what he is, only that he _is_. But we have robbed him of three souls, so perhaps…remember, balance…he intends to claim three of ours." Another break. Then, "But this is all mere conjecture. Perhaps there is nothing in it. If so, we will be sorry to have troubled you."


	2. A hollow body and a hollow heart

 2. A hollow body and a hollow heart

I. Tidus

   In the days just before the last fight with Yu Yevon, I thought a lot about what would happen after, where I'd find myself. This is the last place I could've imagined, in this locked cell with one my best friends and one of my worst enemies. Seymour's standing by the door, looking out. He isn't worried. Guess he's been through worse…not that I feel sorry for him or anything. Auron is leaning against the wall, next to me. The Al Bhed took his hip-jug-thing, as well as his sword. 

   The fayth promised me a new ocean to swim in. As far as I can tell, I'm still in Spira, and even being imprisoned here is better than being free in some other place, away from Yuna. According to Auron, they'll let us out in a week. If they don't, I'll find a way. I always have.

   "But the question remains," says Seymour, "Are we alive…or dead?"

   "You mean unsent?" I say, before I can stop myself. I'd meant not to speak to him.

   "Precisely." He crosses his arms behind his back.

   "Is there any way to tell?" I ask Auron. He would know. Actually, come to think of it, they both would.

   "Your blood doesn't run," Auron grunts, "After a while it dries up entirely, so you don't bleed. I think you would notice."

   "Still, we cannot be truly alive…you should be on the farplane, and you should be gone entirely." He glares at both of us. "And I…" For the first time, I see him hesitate. Seymour had always spoken so easily before that I got the feeling he rehearsed all his speeches hours before, but now he isn't so sure of himself. "Well, no matter." He almost laughs, but the sound catches in his throat. He is smiling, now, and I see Auron tense. "So these idiots have kept you from the eternal bliss you so undoubtedly deserve. Fear not! I will restore you to it!" And his arms are in motion, weaving around each other in a familiar ritual. I'd seen him perform it only once, but that was enough. The result had almost killed us. His voice has lost its smoothness; he chants hoarsely: "Anima, come to me, aid me, shield me, complete me…" Auron's face is blank, behind his glasses and collar. He isn't doing anything, but then again, he's lived a long, long time. Maybe death really would be eternal bliss for him…no, no point in thinking like that, I have to stop this.

   "Auron!" I shout, but he calls back: "Wait!" Seymour's arms are moving more quickly, now, and the veins in his chest are standing out more than ever. A few seconds pass, he gasps 'Anima' again…nothing happens.

   Suddenly I realize why. "The fayth have been sent, Seymour," I say, "Your Anima's gone for good." The Maester's hands stop dead. The color in his face deepens, until he's almost all blue. For a second I think he's going to cry, and I almost laugh.

   "You poor wretch," says Auron, "You really don't have anyone, now, do you?"

   "You still fall here!" Seymour screams. Another first: I never heard him raise his voice before, either. He brings up one hand; I remember his fingernails are like knives. The next second (how can _anyone_ move so fast?) that hand is around Auron's neck, but Auron has a knife in his own hand, at Seymour's chest. He must have kept it in some inner pocket of his robe. 

   Whoever's keeping us here must be watching us, somehow. They'll come. I wait, afraid to move. It'd probably be reflex for Seymour to stab his nails into Auron's throat. A minute goes by, and a door opens, thank Yevon. An Al Bhed girl stands there with a tray. It can't be Rikku, her hair's black instead of yellow, but she's wearing the same leather suit. She makes a sort of choking noise, but manages to keep hold of the tray, which is loaded down with food.

   "Ah," Seymour says coolly, "I thought perhaps you had no intention of feeding us." He lets his arm drop. Auron lowers his blade. The girl backs slowly out of the room, taking the tray with her.

II. Yuna

   The hour is up. We have returned to the antechamber where we entered, a blank, white place. Like all the other rooms in Strangeways, there are no furnishings expect for lamps and chairs. I'm sitting in one of them, while Veigel stands next to me, checking the timepiece fastened to his wrist.

   "Blicero should be back presently," he keeps saying. And finally, after what must be hours, it happens. Pacco Blicero's face is flushed. Rikku is running along at his heels, nearly hysterical with joy. The rest of his entourage follows, Kimahri, and one of the other Paccos who greeted us.

   "I knew it!" she calls to me as soon they get in. "He still has it, he keeps it in his desk!" 

   "Lady, I assure you, there is nothing of…sentimental value in this trinket, I keep it only because, with its primitive mechanism, I have created a device that has continued to play the same simple tune for what is at present over three years," Blicero assures me. From his voice, I doubt that is the only reason.

   "There you go again, It's what you do best." Rikku chides him. "You take something pretty like music and turn it into something ugly and stupid and boring, like perpetual motion…"

   "_Near_-perpetual motion," Veigel corrects her, "It is losing energy…but at an almost infinitesimal rate. Eventually it will wind down." He looks to Blicero. "But you have never told me the tale of how you acquired this 'primitive trinket'…I assume this young lady had something to do with it?"

   "That is none of your concern," Blicero says, without losing his composure. "Anyway, my business is with Lady Yuna, not any of her lackeys."

   "Hey!" Rikku chirps.

   "And mine with you," I say, "My purpose here is to confer the blessing of Yevon on you and your compatriots, and I do so freely. But you also mentioned…"

   "Ah, yes." He cuts me off. "I believe that our guests are in sufficient command of their faculties to receive visitors…Miss Niner, who brought them their breakfast earlier, related a most…disturbing anecdote, two of them were attempting to kill each other. Therefore it was necessary to relocate one to other quarters. However…you may see them…the quarantine is still in effect, I am afraid, but you will be able to communicate aurally and visually…"   

   "What Pacco Blicero means to say is, This way, if you please…" Veigel reiterates. He motions toward the door, bowing like an usher.

   "One moment." I hold up my hand. "I don't believe we've been introduced…" I nod at the Pacco flanking Blicero, who hasn't spoken yet.

   "Ah." Blicero places a hand an inch above the shoulder of the man, who is bald, short and heavyset: "This is…Legion, chief officer of compound security…"

   "In fact," adds Veigel, "He _is _compound security. We have been somewhat understaffed, recently, but Legion here is worth ten ordinary men, is he not?" Legion nods wordlessly, as though this were nothing more then simple fact.

   "Yuna," Kimahri growls. It startles me, he has a way of blending into the background. "This man like building—no scent. I say he is no man." I wince. I know Kimahri only means to warn me, but I don't want to risk offense…Legion gives no sign he even heard, though, and Blicero only frowns. I rush to apologize.

   "What my Guardian means is that…your security officer is very…uh…clean," I improvise, remembering Rikku's excuse.

   Kimahri glares at Legion, I've never seen such rage in him. "Un-man," he barks at Legion, "We fight, you and I."

   Legion shrugs. Then, in a flawless imitation of Kimahri's challenge, down to his last intonation, he says: "So we fight." He sheds his white robe. He wears a plain, dark tunic underneath, and a circlet of some white material about his neck.

   Kimahri snarls, and even Rikku looks unnerved. Blicero looks from Kimahri to legion several times, and seems to come to a decision. "I have no objection to a duel, providing it is properly supervised."

   "I…suppose there could be no harm," I agree, hesitantly. In Ronso society, as I understand it, a fight is as customary as a handshake. I know Legion will come to no harm. 

   "Veigel," Blicero says, "If you would…make sure no substantial harm comes to either combatant…"

   Veigel nods. "I would. Although, Maester Yuna, with all due regard for your Guardian's prowess…I would strongly advise him to step down. I have never known Legion to be defeated…"

   "You will pretty soon," Rikku says, grinning.

    Blicero leads the way to what he describes as Strangeways' holding facilities. "Veigel has termed them the Guest Rooms," he explains, "Unfortunately, The rest of our staff seems to find this amusing, and have done likewise." 

   "Yunie, what's going on?" Rikku whispers to me. "When I was with him before…he said something about 'your' specimens, and he went into this lab, and he made me wait outside with Kimahri. He was in there for about then minutes. Now who are we going to see?"

   "Please," I whisper back, "You have to trust me. I have my reasons for keeping things from you. Very soon we'll see…if those reasons are valid."

   "Yunie…" she whines half-heartedly, but Blicero is talking again.

   "This is the facility where C-2 and C-4 have been housed," he says over his shoulder. We have reached a circular metal portal, and Blicero unlocks it by touching his palm to a panel on one side. 

   I don't breathe. Blicero is still speaking, but I none of his words reach me. Bowing my head, I walk into the facility. Rikku shouts something. Then I hear Blicero say, very distinctly: "Visitors." Across the room from us is a sheet of glass, and behind that…

   Our eyes meet. There is no mistaking him.

III. Kimahri

   In Ronso language, no word for wrong or right. A thing is strong, or it is weak. This Legion is strong. But not right. Not human, but not machina or fiend, Kimahri knows both smells. Yuna did not understand. Legion does not have no smell, he smells of nothing. Reeks of it.

   "Gentlemen," says the human Veigel, "If you are both prepared, by all means, begin…oh, and Legion…no need to expend all of your energy."

   "Understood." Legion has voice like steel against steel. He lifts one hand to his shoulder. I can see this: he is heavy, slow because of it. I rush. Lance catches him in the throat. I hold back, thinking Yuna will be angry if he dies. Lance pierces skin, no blood. He strikes at the lance, I pull back, jab again. Lance goes between third and fourth rib, no blood. Again, strike, pull back, jab. He steps forward, I jab twice more. He punches, I dodge, jab again. No man, nothing could survive such wounds. Punch, dodge, jab. He can never touch me, slow as he is. Too heavy to carry himself, somehow. So much weight in such a small vessel. How is it possible? Veigel says hold back, does he hold back too much?

   Thinking, I hesitate too long. His fist finds me. Such power! I spin around, jab, he dodges, the cycle repeats. Blood comes from my chest, his fist is like steel as well. Have I hurt him? No way to tell. Would another hit finish me? What is he?

   Another blow, on my arm. Bone shatters, impossible, the pain blinds me—again, and I fold, a volley of blows comes—blood in my mouth, nose—his entire arm drives into my side—

   "Legion, easy!" Veigel says, warning. Up in a second, I leap back, my lance flashes between us. His hand erupts, three fingers fall to earth. I see the inside of this hand, only darkness, empty. Now he stops. No hesitation, my lance drives into him, dead center, enough force behind it to shatter rock—his jaw comes unhinged. He drops. An inch of steel in him, now, but with any other would have been pierced straight through.

   "You're good." His voice does not seem to come from his mouth. My lance slides out. He falls back, hand over his wound. He stands, unhurt.

IV. Auron

   They stand there for a long time, only looking at each other, hands pressed together against the glass. Pacco Blicero looks increasingly uncomfortable as a minute goes by, then two. I catch his eye and shrug. Rikku is waving frantically at me, and I acknowledge her with a nod. None of them seem to see anything amiss here. I can't possibly believe that we were all brought here through some happy accident. And this 'soul syphon'…from the way the man said it, I suspected it was something he had invented on the spot. I've been fooled by more accomplished liars than him in my time. When the girl who was responsible for feeding us returned, having been ordered to separate Seymour 'for his own safety', I put the question to her. She recalled Blicero's soul syphon as a piece of defunct machinery that had been abandoned years ago, and now sat derelict in the water. She guessed he was at a loss to explain our presence, but naturally assumed that science was responsible, and thus credited the soul syphon. Perhaps. He does seem the type.

   "Yuna," Tidus is saying frantically, "You've got to talk to this guy. He thinks we've got some kind of disease, he won't let us out for a week…"

   Apparently they're able to hear him on the other side, because Blicero says: "I have told you a thousand times, the quarantine is protocol. It is remotely possible that you carry some as-of-yet unnamed malady…we must take every precaution…" 

   "Tidus…" Yuna puts her face up to the glass, her smile radiant. "In a week, I'll be here. I promise. I can wait if you like…" She's interrupted by the familiar whirring of opening door. I look past her to see another familiar face, Kimahri, and he looks to be in pain. I catch his eye, and he bares his teeth, but whether stoically or angrily I can't judge. Blicero leaps back, and Yuna turns at the disturbance.

   "You can't just…just…" Blicero stammers. Kimahri brushes past him. His injury is quite apparent, one arm hangs limp, and blood is caked in the ridges of his chest. Yuna gasps. Her arms flutter, and a burst of white energy surrounds the Ronso. Even this does not halt him. He walk to within a foot of her, and chokes out:

   "Yuna. We leave. Now." 

   "Has Legion done this?" She asks. Her Curaga spell has left a massive bruise across his chest.

   "Well," Blicero says, "Clearly Veigel is not as trustworthy as I imagined. I apologize for the damage."

   "Veigel stopped Legion, but too late. Legion too fast for him as well," Kimahri wheezes. Even speaking must be painful for him.

   "I will see that both of them are reprimanded," Blicero assures Yuna. Her attention is fixed on Kimahri.

   "I'm sorry…but we can't leave, not yet. Look!" she says, and steps aside, leaving Kimahri face to face with Tidus.

V. Seymour

   "Love is natural and real…but not for the likes of you, is it?" Her voice is the same, though she has changed form. Instead of my feminine doppelganger, the girl in the chair is now the one who called herself Niner, who prevented me from slaying Auron and led me to this cell. 

   "I hope you realize you have no effect on me," I say to her. I can speak, at least, if not move. My position is fixed, lying on some low of cot. The room is the same as the previous dream. "What are you? A spirit, or some facet of my own mind? Either way, your task is futile. No manner of abuse can sway me, I have long since been rendered impervious."

   She laughs, a sound I swear I've heard before. "Who mentioned abuse? I only state my facts. And you know me, oh…better than yourself."

   "Not so, I know myself better than anyone. And I have no memory of you. And what is your purpose, if not to needlessly torment me?"

   "Seymour, Seymour, Seymour." She gives a sad little smile, and that, too, seems familiar…but the voice is still strange. "So empty. Do you deny it? You love no one, not even yourself. And you are loved by no one."

   "True enough. What of it?"

   "What do you know of love? Could you even find words to render it?"

   "Petty, futile, vacuous. There, are those words enough?" 

   She laughs piercingly. "What if I told you…that the girl of your dreams was here…sad, and all alone?" 

   "What are you speaking of?" This game grows tiresome, and I see no purpose in it. I assure myself it will fade in time. 

   Then, abruptly, it does. The room dissipates like so much vapor, and the dream-entity's mocking face is replaced with what, as my mind reels from its awakening, I gather to be the actual Niner. Her small mouth is made even smaller with apprehension. 

   "Hey," she murmurs, "You awake?" I manage to nod. She draws back, and nods to someone standing behind her. "Pacco Veigel wants a word with you."

   Veigel…have I heard the name before? Perhaps that other Pacco, Blicero, let it drop. A man comes into view. Brown hair rests atop his head like a condor's nest. He looks better fed than Blicero. Collecting myself, I slide my legs over the edge of my bed-slab and sit facing him.

   "Maester Seymour," he says, mildly satirical, "You honor me."

   "May I be excused?" Niner looks pleadingly up at him.

   "By all means," Pacco Veigel says, and bows deeply to her. The cell is dark, but I can her see her blush distinctly. She runs off.

   As the door slides shut, he says aloud: "Poor girl."

   "Why do you say that?" I ask, more sharply than I intended.

   "Because she will be one of the first," he answers vaguely. Perhaps I mishear him, my senses are not at their keenest.

   "And what do you wish of me?" I say, managing to adopt my most civil tone.

   "Ah. Seymour Guado. You do not seem capable of engineering so many deaths." He moves ever so slightly to the left, so that his face is in shadow.

   "Lord Jyscal had a saying, one of many: All men are flawed. The better they seem, the deeper those flaws. Beware the man who seems pleasant and talented, for he harbors some hideous secret." I am fairly certain he was referring to me. I was twelve: even then, he knew.

   "Wise words," Veigel says, "From a wise man."

   "Perhaps too wise. This proved to be his undoing." I allow myself a smile.

   "But I did not come here to exchange reminiscences."

   "Then what was your purpose, if I may ask?" 

   He leans closer. His face comes gradually into the light of the door, as though surfacing from murky waters. "I am very concerned," he says, "For the future of Spira. I know the same cannot be said for you. But hear me out. First…tell me all that you know of this being called Sin."


	3. A quick end to a brief Calm

3. A quick end to a brief Calm

I. Yuna

I can't find words for it.

   While he was gone, I was dead, in mind and soul, incomplete. I saw him only in my dreams, and no, the irony doesn't escape me. Without him, the waking world was as Seymour must have seen it—worthless. And I never even knew how much I'd lost. I didn't realize how necessary it was to have somebody. Even with the glass between us, he looks so much more…_real _now than everything else, and how could They say he was only a dream?

   The conversation quickly turns to logistics. I would prefer a more prolonged reunion, but with Blicero standing here, it would be awkward anyway. We will have to wait a week. Of course I can't leave him. Blicero tells me Strangeways has never had proper Guest Rooms, but if we don't object, we can stay in chambers like the one Tidus and Auron now occupy. He seemed humiliated to be suggesting this to a Maester, but I thank him, and it's agreed that we will take the offer. If he had offered me the week in some lightless dungeon, even, I would have been overjoyed.

   Rikku runs to the airship, to tell Brother he can depart. I think he must be anxious to go home.

   "And I will seek out Veigel," Blicero says, "This conduct is unallowable. Allowing a visitor to come to such harm…" He speaks as though Legion himself wasn't at fault in the least. Kimahri seems to resent the implication that he was nearly killed, but he holds his peace. A nervous moment follows, none of us willing to be the first to leave the lab. At last, I exchange a final glance with Tidus, and mouth three words. Then I walk out. Kimahri follows, more closely than before. His own relief at seeing his old comrades has hardly overcome his hatred of Legion, and I can't imagine the decision to stay sits well with him. I wish I could care more deeply, but…Tidus! How selfish I am…

   "You…are happy," he says, simply. He always seems to be stating the obvious, but sometimes it's something you never fully realized yourself.

   I only think a moment before I answer, "Yes! That's…that's it exactly, and, and aren't you?"

   "Not sure." The words almost hurt, how could he be anything but glad? "Not right. Something strange, here…no. Do not listen to Kimahri. Be happy." As always, I take his advice.

II. Seymour

   I have never talked with anyone at such length. This man is an enigma. Most humans are simple creatures, one glance at Tidus and all of his feeble ambitions were known to me. This Veigel is deeper, somehow, either that or his persona is only a front. He listens patiently as I explain what I know of Sin, its neutrality, its perfect impartiality toward everything. Nothing compels me to do so, but I feel that perhaps, just perhaps, he might be able to comprehend what none of Sin's victims did. I describe the treacherous path to heart of Sin, the cesspools of emotion, everything ugly and hateful incarnate. And as I speak, a new idea gradually takes shape in my mind, and I know it to be true.

   "Sin," I say, "Is… was…Spira's shadow. The avatar of everything we found distasteful. A…not a scapegoat, exactly, but something so horrible that all else seemed pure and good in comparison…and now that it's no more…"

   "Ah!" Veigel's eyes seem to be lit from within. "So you begin to understand. I had thought you might. Sin is eternal, Sin cannot be destroyed…it is only transformed from one form to another! You see?"

   "Like energy, or momentum," I muse, "Sounds just like the sort of thing you Paccos would dream up." 

   "Pay no attention to Paccos," he snaps, "They do not know anything about anything that really matters. They are the most deluded kind of people. Blicero tells me that it was his soul syphon that brought you here, but I know this cannot be. These are lies Blicero tells himself, lies like walls, built to protect against a world that continues to defy his conjectures." His voice takes on an edge I find almost manic, but not quite. "As if science were capable of giving life to dreams and corpses. There is only one such power—almighty Yevon itself."

   I am beginning to tire of this. Is he serious, or is this some gambit meant to deceive me? And if so, to what purpose? "And yet you call yourself a scientist. Does your slander apply to yourself?" 

   "Speak no more to me of science! I am sick to the back teeth of science!" Furious, he lapses into Al Bhed. The outburst seems genuine.

   "Anyway, do you suggest that Yevon would stoop to resurrecting such as us? I know something of his ways, as a Maester, and it would seem to me that he rarely takes such a…direct hand in mortal affairs."

   "Think." He stands. "Why do the dead become unsent? Is it their own will that keeps them from the farplane? You would know best the intricacies of Yevon. His plan is far beyond human reckoning…and you still have some part in it. Also…" He hesitates. "When I realized the nature of Sin, and our peril…I did something that I had never attempted before, ever, in my entire life…I prayed. I bowed before the all-being of Yevon and entreated him, Bring to me those touched by Sin…"

   "Ah, the Missive Of The Heathen. A powerful force, when genuine, but I still doubt Yevon would be swayed…"

   "I do not know if it was of any importance. But it is true nonetheless."

   "And what is this peril you mentioned? Are you saying Sin will return yet again?" The prospect stirs something deep within me, but whether joy or sadness, I cannot say…wait, no, joy, naturally, what else? That I even considered it for a second seems absurd. It was as though another voice spoke in me. 

   "Not exactly." An even longer hesitation, and he bows his head. At length, his voice returns: "Here. If you would consent to follow me..." At the touch of his hand, the glass wall of my cell slides back.

III. Rikku

   I'd like to stay with Auron. There's so much he's got to hear about, Yunie in Luca, with the whole crowd cheering for her, the Guado marching on Bevelle, not to fight like everyone thought but to help rebuild, people carving houses into Sin's body…

   But Bli wants me out of the lab. The nerve, acting like he hardly knows me. We've been here for six hours, and I've been following him around most of the time. I've seen him look at a lot of things, and sometimes he takes notes, but…well it could just be me. It's not like I know anything about science. But it doesn't look like he's doing much.

   "What're you workin' on?"

   "I doubt you would understand." He's been like this the whole time. His whole life, really.

   "Can I see the soul syphon?"

   "By no means."

   "Why not?"  

   "…Delicate machinery, can't risk any damage." He hasn't looked at anything for a while. He just seems to be walking around.

   "Where're you going?" He doesn't answer, just looks straight ahead. "Well you could at least _try_ t' explain what you're doing, you owe me that much…"

   "I don't owe you anything." 

   "Just, like, in general. What're you doing here?"

   "The ultimate purpose of Strangeways is to reduce all that is and ever has been to a single, comprehensible equation. As anyone could tell you. Every day brings us closer to that goal."

   "Tchk. Good luck getting _that _to work out."

   "I would not have expected you to appreciate…science, logic. We are one of the few species even capable of reason, do you realize that?"

   "I guess…"

   "Now will you let me be? Lady Yuna will be able to find some use for you…"

   "What, and leave you all alone?"

   "I work best in isolation. Now if you would…"

   "Have you ever tried _not _working in isolation?"

   "Well…no, not as such…"

   "Then how'd you know how you work best? Isn't that kinda illogical?"

   "Will you desist!"

   Sad. Well, something obviously has to be done. I don't hesitate, I grab the sleeve of his robe, hauling him back so he almost falls over. He looks cute scared, like some little kid… "Unless you can give me one good excuse for why you're doing this, I'm gonna have to stop you," I warn him.

   "Release me at once! If you do not I will summon Legion…such behavior from the Guardian of a Maester…" 

   He really looks mad, but I keep don't let go. What could he really do to me, anyway? Legion couldn't hear him. "You've got three seconds: three…"

   "How dare you!"

   "Two…" He tries to break free, but like I thought, I'm still stronger than him. His face screws up like he's going to cry, or scream, and I wouldn't stop him either way 'cause more emotion than I he ever showed before.

   "Why you…you…" Typical, he can't even think of an insult.

   "One! That's it, you're comin' with me!" I pull, and his feet slide on the tile floor. I think I remember the way out. 

   In the antechamber before the exit, we pass another Pacco in the hall. He yells at her to do something, but she just laughs.

   The sun's setting. A cold wind is cutting across the island from the east, but that's the Al Bhed climate for you. Scorching days, freezing nights. Bli keeps blinking. I wonder how often he gets out. He never stops dragging his feet, either.

   "Listen, I am _not _going to stop. You might as well just give up and enjoy it." He doesn't have any answer to that, so he just sulks. By now he's found the most effective may to slow me down is by going limp. 

   "Will you at least explain what it is you hope to accomplish by this entirely unprovoked attack, young woman?" he says, through his teeth.

   "I _do _have a name. And you do to know it. And besides, you're not much older than I am." The robe and his expression make him look about thirty, but unless his Paccos came with some way to speed up the aging process, he should be twenty-five.

   "Please…" His voice sounds softer. That's a good sign, at least.

   I look him in the eye. "If I let go, will you run off?" 

   His eyes dart back and forth, probably calculating escape routes. "No," he finally says, and his shoulders sort of wilt. I think he looks younger already.

   "Good. Now just a little further…" The trips on the edge of a sheet of rock, and I catch his weight. Hard to believe how light he is. "Almost there…"

   "What, do you intend to throw me into the sea?" I think for a second he's attempting a joke, but he must be serious. 

   I laugh, which only makes him look more miserable. "There's just something I want you to see."

   "What could you possibly want…there's nothing but sea for miles…" We're near the edge of the cliff, now. 

   "Sit down." I let go of him, suddenly. He staggers a few feet away, looks uncertainly at me and gets down on his knees. I sit next to him. "Now just look, just…feel. Come on."

IV. Kimahri

Yuna should not rest here. Too many bad things, more than just Legion. Bad things everywhere. I will stand over her. Never sleep.

V. Seymour

-What is happening? Where is this place?-

   -But I thoughtI loved her. The remnant of some purely biological impulse, one I shed when I became Natus. It was lessened with each successive incarnation, and by the time I was Ultimus, it had vanished entirely.

   -How many times has this body been reforged, how often has its flesh been torn and shaped into some new phantasmagoria? And how much has been lost in the process…? _How…_

-What was the old man thinking when he smiled like that, what did he know, how much? _What…_

_   Whowherewhywhenwhat _I don't _care_, damn everything, won't somebody—__

Won't somebody _stop me                 _

from thinking, from _thinking _all the time…

Won't somebody…from thinking all the time—

   About (_who I am how I am where I am_) everything…won't somebody _help_

VII. Rikku

   "So that's your soul syphon?" It's in the water, not far form the cliff. What I can make out from here is a rotating beam, with some kind of antennae on either end, spinning around and around and around until this kind of whirlpool forms. Simple. Sleek. Modern. It certainly looks like something he'd make.

   "Yes." He looks away. I think being outside might have had some effect on him. Now he's just quiet. 

   "Does it really work?" 

   "……No." What!?

   "But you told Yunie…!"

   "It was…an educated guess. Any number of factors could have led to the existence of those specimens…"

   "They have names, too…"

   "Nothing ever has only one cause, there are a vast number of factors behind everything, not nearly all of which are possible to identify. At least not yet. As I explained, the soul syphon is a device intended to attract sin spawn. It was a failure in that its effect was infinitesimal, but…technically, you understand, it did work. Even the slightest stimulus could influence the path of a sin spawn, drawing it toward the island. And there was a slight, a _slight_ increase in the rate of captures after the device was installed…"

   "Aw, poor Bli. Well, you can't win 'em all…"

   "I never said I regretted it! I am as proud of my failures as I am of my successes, experience is invaluable."

   "Heh."

   "What do you find so amusing in that?"

   "N-nothing, it's just…you, this place, me, everything…" When I was explaining to Yuna about Bli, I was thinking, What did I ever see in him? Now I remember. He's just so sad and pathetic I can't help but like him. I don't think I could ever feel _that_ way about him, or that I ever really did, but… "Listen…can you tell me my name? Remember, it's thanks to me you have near-perpetual motion."

   I can imagine him sounding it out, like he's learning his first word, R...i…k…

   Then something goes off with a sound like fifty grenades, lights flash and bits of metal sails over our heads, raining into the sea.

VIII. Yuna

   Now that my dream is real, I dream my reality. I'm here at the stadium, before the crowd, saying familiar words: 'Sin is no more…' Their faces are blurred but their cheer is deafening, and it only seems to get louder, echoing, changing…

   And then it transforms altogether. I wake to ugly things, smoke, screams…or is this another dream? No. Kimahri's hand is on my shoulder.

   "I'm awake," I say, breathlessly, and he moves to the door of our room. Outside, the compound is shaking violently, as if something very heavy were tearing through it. I hear what sounds like an explosion, and a brief cry— "What's going on?"

   "I knew," is all Kimahri says, to himself. His lance is in his hand. 

   "Come on," I say, "If people are hurt, we have to help them. And to stop…whatever's causing this." It could be anything, escaped specimens, rogue machina. Who knows what horrors could breed in this place? But I can't feel frightened, at least, not for myself. _Great, _some part of my mind says, _just when you've found him at last, this has to happen…_

IX. Tidus

   "We have to get out of here!" Sirens are going off everywhere. Some guy in a robe runs past the door.

   "Stay calm," Auron advises, as usual. He has the knife he pulled on Seymour in one hand, and a smaller one in the other. "Someone will come for us." Nothing happens at first, and I think, What if it's an earthquake or something, and we die in here, never able to fight? Then after what seems like an hour he comes, out of breath and wheezing. I recognize him; think his name was Veigel.

   "Something has happened," he says, almost under his breath, "You are to be released…"

   "It's about time," I say, but Auron holds up a hand for silence. Veigel touches the door and it slides into the wall, just like that…then he's off. He runs fast for a guy who spends his days in some lab. 

   "Wait, what…" I call after him. He could have at least explained what's wrong.

   "You heard the man," Auron says. Sticking one of the knives into his belt, he walks calmly out of the cell.

X. Rikku

   Bli says: "We have to find Legion." There's a circular hole in the front of the building, where something blasted through, and only darkness inside. He's on his feet in a second and running, and I'm just behind him, strapping on my gauntlet. Why now? Things can never stay normal around here for even a day, can they?

   "Are you sure he can handle this?" I takes something powerful to make a hole that big, and even if Legion did beat Kimahri, he's still only some guy.

   "Legion can handle anything," Bli says, almost yelling. The doors are wide open, and I can hear something crashing around inside. Either it's my imagination or the island is shaking a little under our feet. Why now, why now?

   At least the place isn't a total ruin. The first hall looks normal, expect for these tiny lights, each the size of my eye, set above the doors. They're blinking red, filling the whole room. The lady Pacco we saw before is standing in the entrance, pressed against the open door. She doesn't look scared, just careful and sly.

   "Pacco Koning!" Bli calls, and she looks shrewdly up at us. "How many are lost?" is the first thing Blicero asks her.

   "Can't say." She's holding a projectile launcher, one of the old models that fires clay globes.

   "Where is Legion? I have no doubt he will be able to neutralize this disturbance…"

   "Ha!" Pacco Koning shouts at us. "Legion, he _is_ your disturbance! And he has reached critical mass. I would strongly advise you to flee the compound, and I would do so myself, but he is some distance from here…and others must be warned."

   "Legion? Impossible, it is simply…no, I refuse to believe it!" This really must be agony for him. He can't stand life when it's normal, I wonder what it must feel like when something actually goes _wrong_…

   "Oh, believe it…I saw him strike down Pacco Salverson with my own eyes, Salverson asked him: Who has ordered you to do this? And he said: Strangeways has ordered me to do this. Strangeways indeed! Either he has gone mad, or…"

   "Bli," I tug at his arm, "What does she mean…he's at 'critical mass'? What is he?"

   "Legion is…" He looks at the floor. Something crashes down, closer, now. "He is…"

   "He is here!" Pacco Koning calls. I look around, seeing nothing, but the crashing is coming closer every second. Koning holds up her launcher, and takes a step back, into the room. And then he's in the doorway and I don't know what he is but he isn't only some guy.


	4. Ur-Machina

4. Ur-Machina

I. Auron

   This was inevitable. If it were not this creature before us, it would have been something else. My entire life and un-life has been spent combating such monstrosities, and they seem to be in unending supply. I lower my shouldered blade, and Tidus, taking the cue, raises his own sword. The creature's back is to us, and on the other side of it, Rikku protects two of the white-robed meddlers who are to blame for all of this. She wears a harrowed expression, one I last witnessed when Guado were razing Home. I debate whether to call to her and coordinate our efforts, or remain silent and take the creature by surprise—

   "H-hey! Rikku! Over here!" Tidus shouts, waving. She brightens, reciprocating. The creature turns, at least, it rotates its head to face us. It resembles a man, and would be indistinguishable from one expect for the slight dents left by its feet in the metal floor. The ground shifts at its slightest motion.

   "You guys had better run!" Rikku calls.

   "No way! What makes you think we can't take this?" Tidus says. He seems elated with his freedom, despite the situation that's led to it.

   "Uh, there's something you should know first…" she starts, but the creatures interrupts her by lunging forward. It is every bit as clumsy as its apparent weight would suggest, and its blow is artless. It misses by a foot as Rikku leaps back. Perhaps, though, its aim was hindered because its face was still turned toward us.

   Tidus runs forward and strikes at it. His sword slashes across one shoulder, slicing open the creature's tunic and scattering particles of flesh. The wound resembles nothing so much as a scratch. The creature surveys him idly and throws up one hand, catching him in the chest. He's catapulted backwards, striking the wall and falling full length.

   One glance is enough to assure me he's alive. I return my attention to the creature, which is plodding toward me, and cast Scan. Seemingly random words and images flash before my eyes, among them a few intelligible phrases. I know the creature is called Legion, that it is vulnerable to nothing and that it is at full health.

II. Tidus

   Nothing has ever, ever hurt so much. I can't breath or see or anything and I think I'm dead but if I were then it wouldn't still hurt would it? _How could such a little guy _do_ that_? Something wet runs from my mouth and eyes, tears and blood, probably. And of course Yuna's not here to heal…

   Somehow, I'm on my knees, but it still hurts to move. "Auron," I gasp, and he turns to throw something at me. I almost dodge before realizing it has to be some kind of potion. The liquid runs down my face and neck, sinking into my skin and healing the wound. It still aches, but I can stand.

   "Stay well clear of it," Auron says. He and Rikku are backing away from whoever hit me.

   "We've just gotta slow it down enough for us to get out of here," Rikku's saying, breathless, as she reaches into a pouch of her belt, "I'll explain later." The next instant, something leaves her hand and hits the guy in his face, dead center. A grenade. He never even tried to dodge. The flash makes me blink, and by the time I can see again, the guy's standing still with no smoke pouring out of his face.

   "Now!" a familiar voice yells, "It will not last long, we have to…" Auron is already gone. I try to run after him; the pain in my chest explodes again, and I almost fall but Rikku runs to help, caching me by the arm. I try to smile at her.

   "Hurry!" The familiar voice again.

   This guy, whoever he is, is sort of twitching now. I'm not surprised: if he can punch like that, why shouldn't he be able to survive a grenade in the face?

   Rikku and I are almost to the open door. The sky is outside is a deep red. Two of the Al Bhed workers are waiting, one of them with a gun. I recognize the other. He opens his mouth to say something, but this horrible screech like metal getting torn apart comes from behind us, stopping him. Then we're out, still running, dirt under our feet. Rikku slams the door behind us.

III. Rikku

   "It has long been conjectured that the highest evolutionary stage of all life was an omnipotent being…a god. That Yevon is not separate from us, but our destiny or point of origin. Either we evolved from him or will eventually evolve into him. Our ancestors, the ancient people of Bevelle, believed this to be true to some extent. Legion is their dream, and their legacy. He is the god of machina." Figures even now Bli could find it in himself to be so long-winded. I want to scream at him to get to the point, but Auron beats me to it:

   "Never mind that. All we need know is how he can be stopped."

   "Legion is nothing more or less than a concentration of matter, with a fixed shape, but nothing else. His mind is only a set of algorithms. His density is malleable, as is his component material…you see? His current form is constructed of flesh, but he could easily replace it with any solid, steel or rock…I have never seen him do this on any large scale, but I know it to be possible."

   "And if this form is destroyed, could he simply take another?"

   "I…I do not know. He has…never been pressed to such an extreme. And we were hesitant to test him, for fear of damage…we did understand the technology entirely, as it was not out own." Bli looks a lot older now. I can guess why.

   "Hm. A certain Besaidian I know would say this was your punishment for tinkering with such forbidden things," Auron says.

   "And I would say to this Besaidian of yours that he is an idiot!" cries Pacco Koning. "There is nobody to forbid us anything. Now, five of us were responsible for the salvage of Legion, only four of whom survive…therefore we can conjecture that one of them was responsible for…"

   Bli interrupts. "No time, no time! We will worry who is to blame later. Listen: Legion will not be likely to pursue us. I think we have put up significant resistance. Since his current objective is presumably to destroy the compound and terminate its staff, he will seek out simpler ways of doing so. We know this much of his programming."

   "So now what?" says Tidus. "We just wait for him to come kill us? Yuna and Kimahri are still in there, and I don't know if you people care about all your colleagues, but…"

   "Do not assume that the pursuit of logic has done anything to stunt my empathy," Koning snaps, "Far more of my friends are on the other side of this door."

   "We have nothing to gain by bickering. Please, Blicero, continue your story," says Auron. What would we do without him?

   "Yes…the nature of Legion. He has some control over matte directly connected with himself. Very slowly, he is able to absorb it, to increase his own density or repair injuries. However at a certain point he cannot grow any denser without risk of collapse. He is currently in this state. If we can reduce him to significantly below critical mass…"

   "But…can't he just heal himself while he fights?" asks Tidus.

   "It takes some concentration. I doubt he can heal and fight at once. And I also doubt his intellect is sophisticated enough to consider retreat…and when most of his physical incarnation has been destroyed, it may be possible to contain whatever remains. It _may _be." 

   "Wait!" I say. I've seen something he hasn't, I can't believe it. Just maybe… "What if…you said that he's at critical mass, right? That if he gets any bigger, he'll collapse, right? So why can't we just force more stuff into him?" I watch, smirking, as that sinks in. I can tell Bli's trying to come up with some reason why that wouldn't work, but he can't. 

   "Hm." Koning speaks for him. "Not unfeasible. Although Legion does not automatically assimilate anything in contact with him…if something were fired into him with sufficient velocity…"

   "Do we have any projectile launcher capable of that?" Bli asks her.

   "Not that I know of. Unless…when Veigel was conducting his experiments with magnetic polarity, he had Ribbentrop construct that…'photon gun' for him, did he not? To measure the effect of magnetic forces on moving objects. I thought it was absurd at the time, but something as insubstantial as a photon should be enough to do what this girl suggests, and the speeds attained by Ribbentrop's machine were phenomenal."

   Tidus, having no more clue as to what she's talking about then me, has turned back to the building. I wonder: would Yunie know what to do if she came up against Legion?

IV. Yuna

   No bodies. No wreckage. There is almost trace of whatever has caused this disturbance, creating the impression that it must be lurking somewhere nearby, waiting to pounce _on us_… 

   "Anyone!" I call for the thousandth time, "Can you hear us? Is anyone out there? Can you hear us?" So far no one has answered. No bodies, but no survivors, either. We pass through several hallways. This place is a terrible maze, since every hall looks exactly like the next.

   Now, though, we come upon a distinguishing mark. All along this hall, something has left tracks deep enough to split the floor, tracks that almost resemble…human footprints, the marks of shoes… "Legion," Kimahri announces. "He has been here, no-smell everywhere…"

   "But I had thought he was the protector of this place…" I say. I have never known him to be wrong, but…

   "Un-man protector of none. Enemy of all." 

   Then, as his words fade and I stare at this impossible trail, another sound rises from somewhere nearby. It's faint at first, nothing more than a hallucination, but grows louder by the second. Laughter. The reckless, mad laughter Tidus (where is _he _in all of this?) and I used to ward off depression in Luca.

   "Hello?" I call, cupping my hands to my mouth. The laughter grows louder in answer, and presently, its source comes into view. The girl Rikku identified as Niner.

   She grins widely as soon as she sees us. "Ah-ha-hah! Oh…isn't this _wonderful_? Look at it…oh these fools brought it all on themselves!" I think at first she must have lost her mind, but aside from reveling in this destruction, she seems well enough.

   "Please…can you tell us? Have you seen a man…not much taller than me, yellow hair…yellow uniform, with…"

   "Me? I've seen a lot of people…not that they ever knew. '_Niner, fetch this. Niner, carry that. Gooood girl, Niner._' They all thought that since I didn't know all about science I was some half-wit. Oh I played along, did just as I was told, tried to act the part…and it was all worth it! Just for this…" She collapses in another fit of laughter. Perhaps I was mistaken about her sanity.

   "Do you know where the thing that has done this has gone?"

   "Who knows? Who cares? Not around here, I can tell you…"

   "What about the Pacco, are they safe?"

   "They're all dead! They're—all—…well, maybe not all of them…only three of them I know for sure. But the rest will be dead soon."

   "Do you know who was responsible for this?"

   "But that's the best part! It was their own fault there, too, since it was Legion who did it, their own salvage, their masterpiece, and it was one of them that put Legion up to it…I saw that, too! Didn't try to stop him, of course." Her voice takes on a conspiratorial tone. "Tell you what. You want to see where he went? If you could stop him, then they would all be finished, even the traitor! Perfect, just perfect…"

V. Auron

   So we wait. I estimate an hour has passed since Legion began its rampage, and half of that since we made our exit. How long will it take before it sets his sights on us once more? Strangeways is not a large place.

   Pacco Koning has returned to the building, to retrieve the device she spoke of. She would make an excellent Guardian, and I suppose she is, in service of her own ideals. Rikku volunteered to accompany her, but I managed to convince them that no one of us was capable of taking on Legion. If Koning encounters Legion, she will not be able to fight no matter what the circumstances, and it only takes one to flee. So we stand, facing the door, and wait.

   "It occurs to me," says Blicero, "That if Legion truly wished to destroy the facility…he could have done so by now. The labs are full of combustibles; only a small fire would mean the end of the place. And it is decidedly unlike him to be inefficient." No one answers.

   "Umm…" Rikku says, "Koning said something about the people who salvaged Legion…"

   Blicero shrugs. "Before my time. That would have been at least twenty years ago, when I had never heard of Strangeways."

   "But who was here then? I mean, don't you know about how old everyone is?"

   "I see. Well…Koning herself, Salverson, who Koning said had been killed…Stel, who I know for a fact came here very recently…that lunatic Veigel would just be old enough…and Dominus, who seems to think he has some blood-relation to me…Pacco Reil, he often seems paranoid, it would be just like him to implement some sort of override device in a salvage he was responsible for…" Listing the names seems to comfort him. Such a simple, predictable exercise must offer some solace in his current situation.

   "Hey! Don't call Veigel a lunatic, he's the guy who let us out of our cell, we might be dead otherwise!" Tidus protests. 

   Blicero doesn't seem to hear. "Lamacht! I would bet my life it was Lamacht. He detested his co-workers, he was always saying that one day…" In mid-sentence, a tremor of unprecedented magnitude strikes the island. Blicero is shaken almost off his feet.

   "What in the name of…" Tidus shouts. From deep within the compound comes sound of metal being torn asunder, eerily resembling a human screech. Rikku yelps and clutches at her ears, while Tidus looks seriously ill. Blicero looks remarkably calm. I brace myself.

   The door is thrown open, and I expect to see Legion. Rather, Koning dashes out, already to trying to shout to us. The cacophony from within the compound drowns her out, which seems to be getting constantly louder.

   As she comes within a few feet, I can make it out: "_Something…went wrong…_" Naturally.

VI. Yuna

   Propped against the wall by a stairwell, we find the first body. In truth, I haven't seen very many before. Whenever I was called on to perform a sending, the corpses were always wrapped and decorated before I set eyes on them. This man went out horribly. Something hit him in the shoulder, with enough force to stave it in. At least that's what I think; I look away almost immediately. Pyreflies have already begin to settle around him, blurring his outlines. I try not to even think about it, as I always have, but I can't help it…_what could that have felt like? _I can't imagine such pain._ Did he have a wife, children? What was his name? Did he have a name?_

"Well, well, well, well…if it isn't Reil. You bastard, you can fetch your own meals on the farplane. And you have to worry if they're poisoned since you'll already be dead!" Niner walks right past him. I know I have to send him, and signal for her to stop. 

   I thought I would never have to perform the dance again. The motions are almost instinctual. His body pales, then becomes translucent. The Pyreflies disperse. "There," I say quietly, when it's done.

   "Hurry," Niner warns, "The traitor may be gone by now!" She vanishes down the stairs. Kimahri stands aside, waiting for me to follow.

   The door at the foot of the stairs is enormous, more than twice as high as Kimahri. There are no warnings or signs forbidding entry. "This is one of the sealed subterranean labs," Niner says gleefully, "Even if the entire compound were blown to bits, this place would be fine. Only the elder supervising technicians can get in. Well, and whoever happens to bring the supervising technicians their food…" Niner walks up to the door and presses her hand against it. I think she really must be delusional, but then the door yields, sliding to one side to reveal another layer of metal. This separates into two halves, which swing outwards. 

VII. Auron

   "I shot him…there was…a pillar of steel and smoke, from floor to ceiling, pulling everything toward it, equipment, pieces of the wall…" Koning gasps. Her face is slick and red, from a thin cut across the bridge of her nose. She doesn't appear to notice.

   "Talk sense!" cries Blicero. "Exactly what has happened? Has he been destroyed?" Koning can't answer. I look past her to the compound, knowing that he can't possibly have been destroyed. Any minute now he will come through the door or the rift in the wall, impeccable as the day he was created…

   The shrieking reaches a crescendo, and the entire compound begins to tremble, until it looks about to fall in on itself. The walls boil. Steel bubbles and froths like liquid, running into the ground and sending up great plumes of smoke. A sheath of sparks erupts from the door, followed by a flood of molten metal as though Strangeways were vomiting. I tense to run, but instead of surging towards us, the melting compound seems to shrink in on itself. Then, over the yawning door, ten perfect, human teeth form from the metal. 

   "This…" Blicero's voice is a scream. "Not…can't…how…but…what…no!" I admit the spectacle is disturbing. Strangeways is clay under the hand of some unseen sculptor. A massive nose juts from its veneer, then eyes are hollowed out to either side of it, dead eyes staring fixedly at some point offshore. The door becomes a gaping mouth, set between contoured cheeks. I recognize the broad face of Legion. A single, groping hand protrudes to one side. The sound that heralded this metamorphosis continues, fluctuating, sometimes forming garbled words. We all stagger back. All except for Blicero, who falls to his knees, sobbing. __

VIII. Yuna

   The moment the door opens, a rifle is thrust in Niner's face. The vague fear of an unseen menace that's been following me all this time finally comes to a head, and I bring up my staff, ready to fight. Kimahri has been ready to fight all this time, and barks some war-cry in Ronso.

   The only menace, though, turns out to be an ashen-faced Pacco and several of his compatriots huddled behind him. This is only a small antechamber, they must have taken refuge here when the attack began. I expect Niner's shrill laugh, but instead, she pales. Her mouth shrinks to a pinpoint. Muttering apologies, she bows deeply to the Pacco. A slight man wearing goggles, he looks immeasurably relieved.

   "Oh. Miss Niner, I had no idea…I had thought you were Legion, come for us." he says.

   "Pacco Ribbentrop, my apologies." she says meekly, and bows again. Then, Ribbentrop looks past her, instantly recognizing me.

   "Lady Yuna!" He exclaims, and bows in turn. It hardly seems fair.

   "Ribbentrop, have you been into the labs?" Niner asks. 

   The Pacco shakes his head. "We're safe enough here. We saw no need…"

   "Then there is something in there that you may want to see." She seems to regain some of her confidence as she walks past the group of Pacco. I glance over them as I follow; none of them are familiar. Blicero and Veigel must be elsewhere. 

   "Follow me," Niner says, more in the manner of a suggestion than a command. Nonetheless, they hesitantly do so.

IX. Seymour

Words reach me.                   

_What has he  done to you?_

I know it to be Veigel. His voice was the last thing my mortal ears must have heard, assuring me, as he would a child, there would be no pain…and there was none, then…but now…

_The man is sick. Almost as bad as you._

"…Yes, Legion. A low prank, perhaps, but it purchased me necessary time…and besides, it seemed a fitting prelude for what is to come. I have no desire to pontificate now. Merely think of me as a stern but loving parent—my actions may seem harsh, but you will thank me one day."

Hello? Are you even there? 

-Another voice…Yuna…

   "…Seymour? Pacco Veigel, what is all of this?"

-Veigel again.

   "He was once Seymour. The augmentation process is not yet complete…but you force my hand. Ladies and sirs, allow me to present the only boon that the hollow faith 'science' will ever offer to the sorry people of this world! Your savior, Seymour-Redux!"


End file.
